A Society of Unordinary People
Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at 4:05PM | Email Article I wanted to post one final follow-up thought to Marc Backes' Cultivating Gospel Relationships challenge.
He challenged us with the following question: how is it possible that we pass by hundreds of men and women every single day who are image-bearers of God and filled with his life, and yet rarely (if ever) do we stop to engage them, find out their story, and consider them as a creature worth our time, friendship, and concern.
As I got to thinking about how spectacular all of the human beings are that I walk among day in and day out and do not truly know, I came across this quote by C.S. Lewis. He was considering how what we will one day become in the resurrection should influence the way we think of each other today.
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.
All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
(Cited from The Weight of Glory, 2001, pp. 45-46)
No ordinary people indeed!
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